With the draft still more than a month away and the biggest names in free agency finding homes, we are in a little bit of a lull when it comes to news. However, John Hansen attended the combine and Adam Caplan spent time at the owners’ meetings looking to pick up any information from coaches, executives, and other team officials. What we have here are some of the nuggets from the coaches that spoke last week in Arizona.

Bruce Arians, Cardinals

-Believes addition of Rashard Mendenhall helps because of their history. Mendenhall doesn’t need to come out of the game.

-Prefers to use one RB instead of committee

-Wants to name starting QB ASAP, possibly by end of spring. Comfortable with Drew Stanton because he knows the system already and has some athleticism.

-Outside of Levi Brown at LT, there will be competition on the OL.

-Wants flexibility at TE because he doesn’t like to use a FB. Rob Housler praised for being an excellent receiver, just scratching the surface.

Tom Coughlin, Giants

-Excited about Brandon Myers’ catch total from 2012. Believe he’s well rounded and can help with ground game.

Jason Garrett, Cowboys

-Need more than one RB. Need to run it better. Need to balance offense and healthy [...]

Even though labor negotiations appear to be in the final stages, players are not taking anything for granted and have continued workouts. It might be fun to discuss the rumors of player movement, but our only real source of concrete information comes from the practices being held at high schools and colleges across the country featuring your favorite NFL players (and a bunch of guys you’ve never heard of).

While that magazine cover may be over two years old, the foot in that boot remains an issue for Crabtree.

Good news, bad news at Camp Alex II … Alex Smith, who despite being unsigned, is running his second set of workouts for the 49ers this week. Rookie QB Colin Kaepernick decided to skip the NFLPA rookie symposium in favor of these workouts after being unable to do much work on the field during the last set while recovering from surgery he had early last month. Kaepernick admitted he needed to get his timing down, but felt good. Starting LT Joe Staley doesn’t think Kaepernick comes across as a rookie and his play in practice has already excited the team. Now, the bad news. WR Michael Crabtree, who missed time at [...]

Hey, it is finally that day we have all been waiting for! Mediation is back! Woohoo! The NFL and decertified NFLPA will meet in front of Judge Arthur Boylan, and while any negotiating sessions could theoretically help lead to an agreement between the two sides, we will not hold our breath until there is a ruling from Judge David Doty in the lockout damages case and/or a ruling from the 8th Circuit on the enjoined lockout. But still, yay mediation!

Mediation resumes… Don’t get your hopes up. Only a couple days of talks are scheduled, and both sides are certainly fulfilling a court-ordered obligation to meet. Otherwise, they’d be waiting idly on court rulings, just like the rest of us. Any meeting might produce a sliver of hope if one side shows signs of caving, but we don’t see any way the sides don’t wait for a court ruling from the 8th Circuit to make any sort of moves. In the meantime, Patriot owner Robert Kraft, maybe the most moderate voice in this whole mess, offers some words of warning to both the owners and players. We believe the fans are already angry enough, but Kraft is right: if a deal [...]

About Matthew Camp

Camp has been a fantasy football player since 1997, when he remembers using the box scores from the New York Daily News.

Here are the top stories I’m following for Week 17 Cleveland (7-8) at Baltimore (9-6) Brown QB situation. Brian Hoyer (right shoulder/biceps) did not practice Friday. Rookie Connor Shaw is set to start for them at Baltimore. Do they give Terrance West any snaps to evaluate him? He played 0 snaps last week. Does Josh Gordon do anything to leave us something t […]

Here are the top stories that I will be following in Week 16 for fantasy. Philadelphia (9-5) at Washington (3-11) Robert Griffin III did play better last week, but does it mean anything? It’s hard to trust him even against a beatable secondary and a defense that lost a top pass rusher in Trent Cole. If you’re playing in Week 17, can you trust DeSean Jackson, […]

Here are the top stories I’ll be following in Week 15 with some insight on some of them. Pittsburgh (8-5) at Atlanta (5-8) Will Julio Jones play? It’s obviously a huge key for Matt Ryan’s ability to hang with the Steelers in a high-scoring game. Without Jones, they have no explosiveness in the passing game and Ryan will have to dink-and-dunk to Roddy White a […]